The Insanely Genius Things Celebrities Do To Outsmart Paparazzi

Paparazzi maybe the ultimate disadvantage of stardom, but there are some easy – yet brilliant – ways to fend them off.

There may be a ton of advantages to being rich and famous, but being followed around by pesky paparazzi almost erases them all. Here are some of the ingenious things celebrities have done in order to outsmart these stalker-like photographers.

Walking/Hiking Backwards

Taylor Swift has been known to walk backwards – be it getting in a car or taking a hike, the multi platinum singer has been photographed on various occasions with her back towards the camera. While she may look like a “truck backing into a loading dock,” as Defamer pointed out quite eloquently, her reverse mode technique is actually an effective – yet extremely odd – way to avoid paparazzi.

The 25-year-old millionaire recently shared this important tidbit with her followers on Tumblr.

“I saw the guy with the camera and wasn’t in the mood so I hiked the whole trail backwards and my security told me when to make turns,” the singer explained.

Here’s another gem.

Wearing Same Outfit Over And Over Again

When Daniel Radcliffe appeared in the stage play Equus in 2007, he developed a little trick to frustrate the paparazzi waiting at the stage door every night.

"I would wear the same outfit every single time with different T-shirts underneath but I would wear the same jacket and zip it up so they couldn't see what I was wearing underneath, and the same hat," he said. "So they could take photos for six months but it would look like the same day. They became un-publishable, which was hilarious because there's nothing better than seeing the paparazzi get really frustrated."

Several other celebrities, including Katy Perry, have been known to use this technique to outsmart the pesky photographers by making their images useless.

Hiring A Body Double

No matter what the world says, Kim Kardashian is quite a genius – at least when it comes to deceiving paparazzi.

Apparently, when she and husband Kanye West were on their honeymoon in 2014, Kim employed a body double to trick stalking reporters. The woman hired by the couple bore an uncanny similarity to Kim and successfully managed to fool a lot of people.

Reflective Clothing

Though it may sound a little far-fetched, it’s actually quite true.

Chris Holmes, the resident opening DJ act on Paul McCartney's tours, has created an Anti-Paparazzi Collection to outsmart paparazzi. The material used in these clothes reflects light from the camera flashes, creating a blurry, unusable image.

“After wearing reflective clothing to several performances,” he explained, “I noticed that photos from the shows always looked odd because the flash that bounced off my clothing would wash out the rest of the photo. While I wasn’t thrilled that many of these photos were ruined because of my clothing, it gave me the epiphany that perhaps I could use this technology for a greater purpose.”

Turn It Into Promotional Campaign

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone introduced a brilliant way of using these paparazzi to their own advantage.

When accosted by some photographers after a casual lunch, this pair of talented actors used cardboard pieces to hide their faces. What’s genius is the fact that the hand-held signs showed the names and some other information about a number of charities. Garfield and Stone wanted to send the message that the causes of these charities represent far more importance than trying to make money off celebrity pictures.

However, it was also to genius way to get paparazzi to leave them alone.